Looking at the photos of the upcoming P55 boards, the absence of the northbridge chip is most noticeable and it's clear that the motherboard is going to take a smaller part in the system's power consumption from now on.
I was wondering if anyone has come across some meaningful power readings for this platform. Can we expect remarkably low idle power levels, like 25-40W barring GPU? Are the power phases now directly controlled by the processor, or do we still rely on third-party software from the mobo maker for dynamic phase switching? And just how unsettling would the 95W TDP be to the likes of us? Intel may have spoiled us lately with relatively lenient TDPs for the dual and quad core Penryns and I feel 95W could be a solid number this time around.
This is what I've found so far -- a low-clocked engineering sample, tested by Anand:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... =3570&p=11
Sorry if I sound a little uninformed but I really hadn't had much interest in Nehalem until recently.
Lynnfield power consumption?
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I think that is the million dollar question right now. I don't expect any serious reviews anytime soon, and most of the time the power numbers they've given are useless because they are using some non-reference high end graphics card.
Worst case scenario is that we only get the benefits of the northbridge components go from 65 nm to 44/32 nm.
I have high expectations for P55, low-end i5, and a ssd, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Worst case scenario is that we only get the benefits of the northbridge components go from 65 nm to 44/32 nm.
I have high expectations for P55, low-end i5, and a ssd, but we'll just have to wait and see.
dynamic phase switching doesn't make a difference.
for example on a P45 gigabyte board we have these possibilities(2 or 6 phases on 15 watts) (3, 4 or 6 on 30 watts) (4, 5 or 6 on 45 watts) (5 or 6 on 60 watts) that is when the active phases number changes at 15, 30, 45 and 60 watts.
the system power (98.3 100.3W) (117.1 118.6 119.1W) (138.1 139.1 139.5W) (165.3 166.8 167.1W)
that is -2W maximum when the power phase number drops mainly because voltage also drops 0.025V.
running on 1 phase is not safe and that is what the cpu can actually control currently and probably gets inherited by nehalems. disable it because it is bad for undervolting.
for example on a P45 gigabyte board we have these possibilities(2 or 6 phases on 15 watts) (3, 4 or 6 on 30 watts) (4, 5 or 6 on 45 watts) (5 or 6 on 60 watts) that is when the active phases number changes at 15, 30, 45 and 60 watts.
the system power (98.3 100.3W) (117.1 118.6 119.1W) (138.1 139.1 139.5W) (165.3 166.8 167.1W)
that is -2W maximum when the power phase number drops mainly because voltage also drops 0.025V.
running on 1 phase is not safe and that is what the cpu can actually control currently and probably gets inherited by nehalems. disable it because it is bad for undervolting.
@Blue_Sky
I guess we'll have to wait and see. I would say that the sweet time for an upgrade would be sometime in the second quarter of 2010, after the dust settles. Of course, that is if the wait is not an issue.
@yuu
I've seen many opinions on exactly how effective it is but, as we well know, every watt counts in the grand scheme of things.
With DES, I see 2/8 watt savings at idle/load with E8400, and that is without Gigabyte's vcore tweaks, which run the cpu out of spec. My board has 4 phases and they're never fully engaged with DES active.
I briefly heard about being able to run on 1 phase when the Penryn E0 & R0 steppings came out. I assumed that had something to do with the VRD 11.1 spec as well.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. I would say that the sweet time for an upgrade would be sometime in the second quarter of 2010, after the dust settles. Of course, that is if the wait is not an issue.
@yuu
I've seen many opinions on exactly how effective it is but, as we well know, every watt counts in the grand scheme of things.
With DES, I see 2/8 watt savings at idle/load with E8400, and that is without Gigabyte's vcore tweaks, which run the cpu out of spec. My board has 4 phases and they're never fully engaged with DES active. I briefly heard about being able to run on 1 phase when the Penryn E0 & R0 steppings came out. I assumed that had something to do with the VRD 11.1 spec as well.